The Supreme Court released its opinion in McDonald v. Chicago on June 28, 2010. Briefs in McDonald v. Chicago, NRA v. Chicago

The Supreme Court in Heller in 2008 decided on a qualified fundamental right. In McDonald it has decided on 14th Amendment incorporation protecting an individual right from the infringement by state and local government. The problem is that as a matter of policy making the courts have rendered the individual right versus collective right distinction perfectly meaningless.

What is at stake is very far removed from public consciousness. The Potowmack Institute prepared a crude draft of a brief to file in McDonald but no lawyer could be found to refine and file the arguments.
http://www.potowmack.org/McD2.pdf
There is political consciousness among lawyers. The brief would not have made any difference. The courts have become highly politicized and are not interested in arguments. There is no public that holds the courts accountable.

What is missing from public consciousness is that the rulings of the courts starting with Parker in 2007 are devastating defeats for the gun rights core doctrine that the purpose of those gun in private hands, outside of the knowledge and reach of a governing authority, is to maintain an anarchic balance of power between a privately armed populace and any and all government. The political leadership to carry those rulings forward does not exist.

Much of the Supreme Court's historical reasoning in Heller and McDonald was taken from Joyce Lee Malcolm. The Potowmack Institute has challenged Malcolm to put her research, reasoning and purposes to the test of policy making in the context of former Attorney General Ashcroft's "reasonable restrictions" and courts' conclusions that we can have "registration ... for militia service is call up". The challenge is to pursue the next step which is a study by the Eric Holder Justice Department that updates Ashcroft's 2004 study, which was a gun lobby propaganda piece likely written by NRA operatives.
http://www.potowmack.org/jlmalc.html.
Much is explained and outlined in this appeal to Professor Malcolm. The challenge is general. There needs to be public pressure to force leadership on the Holder Justice Department.

A Department of Justice study could be the beginning of the process of political leadership that will lead to the effective policy making the courts have opened the path for. We cannot be optimistice when the appeal is for political leadership.

There is no political consciousness on what is really at stake. Gun rights and the gun vote are not about guns. They are about furthering a much broader vision of economic, social and political life. The most vital and fundamental issues, values and concepts of political life are what are really at stake. See Malcolm letter. This where we get seriously political. If we have problems, it is because fundamental concepts and values are forbidden from public knowledge and discourse. If the Obama Campaign had had any political consciousness and leadership it would have challenged the McCain Campaign: Do you accept and support the conclusions of the Court in Parker/Heller that we can have "registration ... for militia service if called up"? What McCain going to say? The gun vote goes to Bob Barr and Ron Paul, who are the only candidates who would have understood the question, and becomes neutralized in national politics.

The Potowmack Institute's previous homepage from May, 2008 to August, 2010 is at
http://www.potowmack.org/index2.html.
The homepage prior to May, 2008 is at
http://www.potowmack.org/gunviol.html
Much more information is on those pages.

II. Sovereignty and the appalling spectacle of anarchic federal judges

III. Failing our history and historical concepts

IV. Civic values and the politics of the modern state

V. Guns and controlling political outcomes

VI. Toward a national firearms policy

VII. Adolescent insolence, insurrectionist fantasies and personal sovereignty

[PotowmackForum] interactive posting